Untold Corruption

—————————————–

How referees are not quite as independent as we would like them to be and other concerns.

—————————————–

Background: the Match fixing scandal…

We have been considering the notion that the EPL is fixed for some time, gradually edging towards the view that something akin to the actions of Luciano Moggi (the Juventus manager) and others in Italy is now in place in the UK.

Moggi et al had conversations with several officials of Italian football to influence which referee got which game. The system (“Calciopoli” as it was called – Bribesville as it is translated in some quarters) did not mean that matches were fixed to produce a set score, knowledge of which could be used in gambling, but rather that favours were given by a variety of clubs to certain refs over time, and these refs edged games in favour of the clubs using the system. Juve, Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio, Reggina were all ultimately found guilty.

The system was hard to track down not least because it had little to do with gambling. The key approach to stopping match fixing in most of Europe involves waiting for the bookies to cry out that there have been “unusual betting patterns”, and then the investigation follows. Here there is no such activity, and because there is no other system to track down an English Bribesville, nothing happens.

Untold has been pretty much on its own in pursuing this line of enquiry until the BBC got in touch recently and started the round of interviews with ourselves, and our persistence with the story leaves us open to the notion that we are just looking for excuses when Arsenal lose.

You might like to note that the BBC has picked up on our story and is now running it here – including interviews with Walter and Dogface.

Untold, working initially alone, and then with Referee Decisions has repeated suggested that something is wrong, and that we are not at all convinced by the view that all corruption is gambling based. We think some of it might just be club based – as it was in Italy.

Further, we find that it is impossible to get to the truth because of the secretive nature of PGMO – the organisation that runs Premier League refereeing. A series of reports on the rumours that we are hearing from inside the world of refereeing are now appearing on Untold, and will be indexed here shortly.

——————-

You have to make your own mind up – but first please do take a look at the evidence in the articles above.

Untold Corruption is part of “Untold Arsenal” – an ever growing collection of articles and comment on numerous aspects of football from a pro-Arsenal perspective. A list of other sections within Untold Arsenal is given at the end of this page, and on the home page of the site.

Untold Corruption has evolved from the work of team who draw together their reports on how referees have performed in various matches, and combines this with reports of inconsistencies and downright bias. If you would like to contribute an article to any of the Untold Arsenal sections or if you would like to start up a new Untold section please do write to Tony.Attwood@aisa.org

Past stories from Untold Corruption are given below (these are roughly in date order starting with the latest) and after that the index to all the sites within the Untold series.

We really do welcome writers who have a positive view of the Wenger revolution, or who have something new to say about any of the topics that we regularly cover – all listed above. Just email your idea to Tony.Attwood@aisa.org or send in the whole article as a Word file attached to an email.

Making the Arsenal

Full details of the novel which tells the story of Arsenal’s collapse and birth as a new club in 1910. Details here. A new book on Woolwich Arsenal FC is in preparation.